So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
JOHN CALVIN
scourges; and thus it never happens, that God chastises without some advantage.
Though then the reprobate obstinately resist God, and hesitate not to tread under foot his judgments, and as far as they can, render them void, there are yet some few who receive benefit and acknowledge God's hand so as to humble themselves and repent.
The Prophet, then, after having complained that the chief men, even those who were in honor and in wealth among the Jews, heedlessly despised God's dreadful judgment, makes this addition, that there were a few very poor and humble men, who regarded this judgment as not having come by chance, but through God, who became a just avenger, because his favor had been wantonly despised: The poor then of the flock knew this to be the word of Jehovah
As this happened in the time of the Prophet, it is no wonder that at this day, even when God thunders from heaven and makes known his judgments by manifest proofs, the world should yet rush headlong into perdition, and become as it were stupefied in their calamities. In the meantime we ought to strive to connect ourselves with the miserable poor, who are deemed as the offscourings of the world, and so attentively to consider God's vengeance, that we may seriously fear and not provoke his extreme judgments, and thus perish with the wicked.
We must observe also the expression which Zechariah introduced before the last words, Who attend to me. He mentions it as a singular and a rare thing, that even a few deigned to consider the works of God. The chief wisdom of men, we know, is attentively to consider the hand of God; but almost all seem to be immersed in a state of stupor: when the Lord smites them, they stand as it were amazed, and never, as we have already said, regard the hand of the smiter; and when the Lord freely and kindly cherishes them, they exult in their own wantonness. Thus under every kind of treatment, they are untractable; for they attend not to God, but close their eyes, harden their hearts, and cover themselves with many veils; in short, we find the blindness of the world ever connected with perverseness, so that they in vain pretend ignorance, for they attend not to God, but on the contrary turn their backs on him and darken the clear light by their wickedness.
We now then see why this sentence is introduced, that the poor of the flock understand, because they apply their minds and devote their attention for the purpose of considering the works of God. It hence follows that the bulls, who with their horns fearlessly assail God, and that he-goats, who by their stench fill the air, continue in their brutishness, and derive no benefit from God's judgments, because they are wilfully and through their own wickedness wholly blind. It follows ---
Zechariah 11:12, 13
12. And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear.
So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
12. Et dixi illis, Si bonum est in oculis vestris (hoc esst, si vobis placet,) date mercedem meam; quod si non, desistite: et appenderunt mercedem meam triginta argenteos.
13. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prised at of them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter